Twitter Reaches Spam Lawsuit Settlement With Tweet Adder

Twitter has settled its lawsuit against Tweet Adder, one of five companies that Twitter sued last year, accusing them of making tools that spread spam across its service.

As AllThingsD first reported, the settlement places strict rules on what Tweet Adder is allowed to do with its current software — primarily, it has to play by all of Twitter’s rules. From the settlement document:

“Defendants … are permanently enjoined from directly or indirectly … creating, developing, manufacturing, adapting, modifying, making available, trafficking in, using, disclosing, selling, licensing, distributing (with or without monetary charge), updating, providing costumer support for, or offering for use, sale, license, or distribution (with or without monetary charge), any software or technology designed for use in connection with Twitter’s service, the use of which would violate Twitter’s Terms of Service.”

Tweet Adder still exists, but it brags on its home page that the current version of its software “complies with Twitter TOS, Uses Oauth and Twitter API!” Previous versions made it easy to auto-generate spammy tweets and post them to Twitter, as you can see from this screenshot that we took when the lawsuit was first filed:

AllThingsD also reports that Twitter previously settled out of court with Tweet Buddy, another one of the five defendants that Twitter sued. Both Tweet Adder and Tweet Buddy were classified as “Spamware” defendants. There’s a third defendant classified that way, while the other two are classified as “Spammer” defendants — individuals that Twitter says operated a network of spammy accounts. Those additional three cases are still open.

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Matt McGee is the Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. After leaving traditional media in the mid-1990s, he began developing and marketing websites and continued to provide consulting services for more than 15 years. His SEO and social media clients ranged from mom-and-pop small businesses to one of the Top 5 online retailers. Matt is a longtime speaker at marketing events around the U.S., including keynote and panelist roles. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. You can reach Matt via email using our Contact page.

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http://twitter.com/jeffmcneill Jeff McNeill

This is a tool that can be used for a variety of purposes, including “spammy” ones as well as legitimate audience-building tools. Marketingland should be a little more clear on that, since the difference between a spammer in social media and an advertiser sometimes is only whether the network gets paid. For those organizations who want to advertise, but are too small to spend millions, these tools help out a lot. Even the new version which complies with Twitter is worthwhile. Is it spam anymore? Take this topic seriously, it deserves more than snarky comments.

http://www.leapfroggr.com/ Dennis Seymour

That’s right Jeff. Tools like this or even scrapebox can be used to spam like hell in the wrong hands but marketers like us should see the beauty of what softwares like these can really offer. It’s good that they finally settled the case

Matt McGee

Thx Jeff. I feel like I made it pretty clear that Tweet Adder is a different product now than it was when Twitter filed the lawsuit. I didn’t use it back then, but it clearly existed to do things that violated Twitter’s TOS. The fact that Tweet Adder settled the case seems to suggest that they agree that’s what their product was for at the time.

TwitTwain

Yup. Tweet Adder is dead. I am trying tweetattackspro2 and it works just like tweet adder 3.0. I heard that they are going a spcial discount. I tried out their software and it hahha is awesome.
just google tweetattackspro2
Awesome software.

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